W. Track freshmen shoot down Army

Thirty freshman joined the women's track team in November, mapping out a plan to turn Penn into a dominant force not only in the Ivy League, but throughout the Northeast. This past Saturday, the new recruits marched all over Army at West Point. "If this meet had been scored we would have taken first place," Quakers assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. Of the 15 events at Penn placed first in nine of them. "It was a great test for us," Tenisci said. "This was a high quality meet, and our kids ran hard and performed extremely well." Junior Michelle Belsley raced her way to a first-place finish in the 1,000-meter event with an outstanding time of 2 minutes, 54 seconds. "A year of cross country has given her a tremendous base of strength and has allowed Michelle to blossom into one of the elite runners in the Ivies," Tenisci said. "If Michelle can stay healthy she certainly has unlimited potential." In the other distance events, Penn was equally dominant. For the second week in a row, sophomore Melanie Gesker blew past the competition in the 5,000 meter. Only 20 minutes after getting off the bus, Gesker stood poised on the starting line ready to improve upon her personal best time of 18:36 she set two weeks ago at Cornell. After a grueling race, Gesker managed to knock five seconds off her old time. The Quakers' rookies made their presence felt in the jumping events, sweeping first place in the long jump, the triple jump and the high jump. For the third week in a row, freshman Kim Mason took first place in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet, one and 3/4 inches. Freshman Lisa El leaped 36 feet, 6 inches to grab first place in the triple jump. And freshman Tiffany Archer high jumped up and over the competition with a first place height of 5 feet, 4 inches. The Quakers continued their field domination with a dominant performance in throwing events. After breaking the Penn shot put record at the Cornell Invitational two weeks ago, freshman Luana Botelho again threw herself into the school record books by breaking her own record. At West Point, Botelho took first place in the shot put with her record-breaking throw of 41 feet, 10 inches. Junior Erin Soley also had a good day, placing fifth in the twenty-pound weight event with a personal-best throw of 47 feet and four inches. Standouts for Penn in the sprints were Kim Mason taking first in the 55-meter hurdles and Kelley King winning the 200 meters with a time of 26.5 seconds. As Penn headed into the final lap on a great day of racing, jumping and throwing the stage was set for a strong finish by the surging Quakers in the relays. "We were really excited about the performance of our relay teams at West Point," Tenisci said. In the 4x400 meter relay, Penn started two teams. The first squad placed first with a time of 4 minutes flat. The second team finished just .08 seconds back. In addition to the first place finish in the 4x400, the Quakers also captured first place in the 4x800 relay. "Overall on Saturday, we were really the class of the relay field," Tenisci said. As Penn prepares for its toughest meet of the season against Princeton, Tenisci acknowledges the superb effort by the team at West point. "Yes it was a great for us but now we have to prepare for the meet that probably means the most to the team."